The Waif Given a Home

Marietta Daily Leader, April 7, 1899

Ray H. Van Armor, the two-year-old child who was found in a basket on the doorstep of the residence of Dr. S. D. Hart on Fourth Street when he was a small infant, was formally adopted by the family who have had him in charge since that time. Mr. and Mrs. Stephen G. Huffman [Stephen G. Hoffman] who live on the West Side have been taking care of the little fellow and decided to formally adopt him, which was done Wednesday, Probate Judge Rood issuing the necessary papers to make him the child in law of Mr. and Mrs. Huffman [Hoffman]. He was given the name of Glenn Howard Huffman. [Glenn Howard Hoffman].

The child's parentage is unknown and likely will never be disclosed. The baby was found nearly two years ago on the doorstep of Dr. Hart, the people who left it there no doubt thinking that as the Doctor had been so long in charge of the children's home that he would be very capable of caring properly for the infant.

 

Baskets of Food Will Be Given Needy

The Marietta Daily Times, December 23, 1933

Christmas Cheer Will Be Brought Many Homes in County

Christmas cheer will be brought to many poor families in Marietta through the distribution of Christmas baskets, each with food enough for a bounteous Christmas dinner. The fraternal organizations of the city, each with its list of private charity cases in the confines of the lodges, are doing their work in distributing food and relief where it is needed.

The Salvation Army, general medium for the distribution for the poor and needy families of the city is arranging to send out 100 baskets that are needed. Although contributions this year are far below the cost of furnishing the 100 baskets, Captain Garland has carried through his original plans confident that generous citizens will come to the rescue and make up the deficit in expense. Today, Saturday, marks the last opportunity Mariettans will have to contribute to the Salvation Army Christmas fund.

The 117 children at the Washington County Children's Home will enjoy a chicken dinner at noon on Christmas Day, and there will be all the good things that make a Christmas dinner. The Santa Claus of the home will make the distribution of Christmas gifts to all the children on Christmas morning, when he will hand down the presents from a large Christmas tree in the dining room. The Christmas dinner table will be decorated with greenery and small lighted trees. The children presented their annual Christmas program at the First Methodist Church on Friday evening before a capacity audience. The program was much enjoyed.

The Woman's Welfare League assisted by the Boy Scouts will fill the baskets in the Salvation Army building this evening and deliver them Sunday afternoon in time for the holiday. 

The Times-Auditorium benefit show on Saturday morning brought in a splendid collection of canned goods and provisions which will prove of great assistance in supplying bountiful Christmas dinners.

The Salvation Army is offering an attractive Christmas season schedule. Sunday morning the program will include special singing and a sermon on "The Gift of the Ages." A pageant will be given Sunday evening at a Christmas Candlelight Service. Mariettans are given a cordial invitation to attend these special programs.

Superintendent and Mrs. L. A. Hall of Washington County Infirmary have arranged for a Belgian hare dinner for the inmates of the home on Monday, and there will be all the trimmings. There are 90 men and women in the county home family, all able to enjoy the dinner. There will be a boiled beef dinner on Sunday on account of the double holiday. One of the classes of the First Baptist Church will present a program at the home at 2 p.m. on Sunday, and there will be distribution of a Christmas treat.

American Legion Auxiliary of Marietta Post No. 64, according to its annual custom of looking after Christmas cheer among World War veterans in Marietta and Washington County will send out a quota of Christmas baskets for families of needy veterans.

The Children's Home

 Marietta Intelligencer, December 15, 1860

It is some time since we have alluded to Miss Fay's Institution, "the Children's Home." We wish now to offer some remarks, which the approaching holidays suggest. All who have little children to love and care for, are now busily engaged in preparing some gift for the comfort or amusement of the dear ones, and anticipating with delight the smiles with which they will be received.

Now, Miss Fay has under her charge twenty-one children, all but three of whom are under ten years of age. All bright, active children, as fond of amusement and fun as the more fortunate little ones who will be loaded with toys and surfeited with dainties during the coming holidays. The noble lady who has undertaken the care of these poor friendless children, finds it as much as she can do to feed and clothe them, and it will of course be impossible for her to provide for them a holiday entertainment, or present them each with the trifling gifts which children all enjoy so much, and need for their reward and amusement. Will not some of our benevolent ladies move in this matter! Perhaps provide a dinner and be themselves present to cheer and encourage not only the children, but the heroic woman who has devoted her life to them. Articles for use as well as amusement would, doubtless, prove most acceptable.

Here is an opportunity of doing much good at very little cost, and the children as well as their parents can aid in it. You will gladden the hearts of twenty-one little children who receive very few of the good things of this life, you will greatly encourage and strengthen her who has assumed the position of mother to these children, and you will receive into your own hearts the blessing that is promised to those who minister to the wants of the widow and the orphan.

Any articles left at this office will be taken care of and forwarded to their destination.

Washington County Infirmary and Children's Home

The Marietta Register, June 10, 1869

W. C. Hood of the Marietta Times recently paid a visit to these institutions and discourses of them in his last paper in this wise:

Last Monday afternoon, at the invitation of F. A. Wheeler, one of the Directors, we paid a visit to the Washington County Infirmary. A ride of three miles brought us to the farm.

This consists of about 170 acres, the most of which was purchased thirty years ago, and it was then a worn-out farm. The soil was light originally and "washes" in a heavy rain. This would suggest careful tillage to anybody who knows aught about farming, but it seems not to have had that effect on some who had managed the place, for two years ago the ground had got to be almost sterile. Large quantities of manure are now hauled out from Marietta, and all that can be supplied by J. H. Dye's livery stable has been engaged. The object is to make the Infirmary a self-sustaining institution. 

There are about five acres of old orchard trees and sixteen acres of fruit trees more recently planted. The probabilities are that there will be an abundant, if not an excessive, supply this season.

Last year eight cows were kept. The product of the dairy was 1,000 lbs. of butter, of which 400 pounds were sold. The inmates regularly have the morning's milk for their supper.

Of hay, the farm for a few years prior to 1868 did not yield enough, but last year there was a surplus which was sold for $146, and there is still about a ton left.

Mr. Gill this year will have pork enough, he thinks, heretofore, there had not being half the needed quantity derived from the farm.

Of potatoes there was a deficiency in 1868. This year the Superintendent has planted six acres, all looking well, and thirty acres of corn.

The garden comprises an acre and a half. Mr. Gill has newly fenced and enlarged it. Last year he raised eight hundred head of cabbages, 50 bushels of sweet potatoes, a large bed of onions, plenty of peas, several kinds of beans, and of beets, more than a sufficiency. This year he has set out fifty grape vines. None had been planted before, old as the place happens to be. Not one of the paupers is a good gardener. An old German who was such, and who loved the employment, died about two years ago.

In the management of matters about the farm houses, Mr. Gill has no assistants other than his wife, his daughter, and Miss Julia Wheeler, a relative. There are sixty-one inmates, and of these thirty-five are "foolish," insane or demented. Forty-eight take their meals in the common dining room; to the others, food is carried. The victuals are wholesome and enough is furnished. We saw the paupers at their supper, and judging from appearances, we think that extreme poverty has the merit of giving its subjects a better appetite than all the tonics known to the medical profession and all the "bitters" ever advertised.

Two old women had attained an advanced age. Mrs. Grant is 94. She claims that her father was a relative of Lewis Cass. Mrs. Cole, another old woman, is 95. In the nursery were three babies - two white, one colored - born there. Illegitimate, of course. One was but three weeks old. Its mother was walking about, completely recovered and quite at her ease.

In what is called the jail, several raving lunatics are confined. One of them, a burly German with the neck of a bull, was very noisy. A poor woman, whose reason had been overthrown by abuse from her husband, was afflicted in addition to other maladies, with the voracity ascribed to the shark. If she could but get enough, she would eat till death choked her. She lay on the floor with her face pressed against the grated door of the cell and stretched her hand through the bars as if piteously pleading. Her whole demeanor was that of a caged animal, such as one may see in a menagerie.

To conclude with the Infirmary: Mr. Gill, as Superintendent, devotes his time to the strict performance of what he has to do, and he is plainly an improvement upon some of his predecessors. Perhaps the farm, such as it is, may never be completely self-sustaining, but he is making it as nearly so as he can. In this he has the cooperation of the board of directors, and without it little, perhaps, could be effected.

It was after six o'clock when we left the Infirmary and at the request of Esquire Wheeler, we went up the Muskingum River road to the Children's Home. This is now in charge of Dr. S. D. Hart and his excellent wife. They are assisted by three nurses, a cook, a dining room girl under the direction of the cook, and one seamstress, who is employed through the year, except when work presses, and then two are required. The Doctor himself goes out to work in the fields, and he has one man hired to help him. Eight boys big enough to be of some use are set at whatever they can do.

There are fifty-four children in the Home at present. The oldest is 14 years of age; the youngest, an infant of seven weeks. There are two other babes, each about a year old. The ages of most of the children range between 2 and 6 years. Nearly half are illegitimate. Their mothers are not really able to take care of them, or else they are too shiftless and indolent.

We were shown through all the rooms and found everything comfortable and in order. It was growing dark. The children were collected in what is called a school room. A hymn was sung, prayer was offered by Dr. Hart, and then they began to prepare for bed. Our little party, at the same time, set about returning to Marietta. We had spent a thoughtful afternoon, first with old people whose lives were destined to end under the clouds, and then with young folks whose lives had begun under a cloud. And yet, neither the aged nor the youthful unfortunates were exactly the most miserable folks we had seen on the earth.

  

A Visit to Marietta

The Marietta Times, May 19, 1870

From the Jackson Standard, D. Mackley, Editor.

The convention met at ten o'clock and its proceedings were conducted in an orderly, business-like manner. The official proceedings will be found in another column.

At three o'clock, buggies arrived to take us on a little excursion. We first visited Marietta College. President Andrews is a very pleasant gentleman, and was very kind in taking us through the College buildings. The library is large and well selected. The rooms we visited contained some thirty-three thousand volumes. President Andrews told me that he is always anxious to receive donations of old books, old magazines. He said many of these are destroyed every year to get them out of the way, when they might be of much use as additions to the College library.

The cabinet of minerals is very interesting. So are the specimens of insects, &c. One thing interested me very much. This was the fragment of the meteor which fell in Morgan County [Muskingum County], May 1, 1860. This fragment weights 110 lbs. It is of a dark color and looks a good deal like a chunk of pig-iron.

I was at Berlin when this meteor passed through a small portion of our atmosphere. It was at midday, and it looked nearly as large and bright as the sun. I wrote a short account of it for the Cincinnati Commercial. Prof. Evans, then of Marietta College, seeing the account, corresponded with me, and he used by account of what I had seen in a pamphlet he afterwards wrote. Prof. Evans held that the main meteor was one-third of a mile in diameter and moved at the rate of, I think, seventeen miles per second.

The theory of Prof. Evans was that the meteor merely glanced through a small space of the earth's atmosphere and then moved off into space. The intense heat caused by friction in the atmosphere caused the outer surface to melt and scale off the main body. These fragments which fell to the earth are the broken pieces of these scales.

There are now three large College buildings, the third one being designed for the library exclusively. It is not yet finished.

From the College we went to the Children's Home. This is located on the east side of the Muskingum River, a mile or more above its mouth. It consists of over a hundred acres of land. The building was a farm house and is not fully adapted to the purpose for which it is now used. But the house and grounds are fine.

We had a good drink of Lemonade, when the children gave us apples, and then we visited the different rooms. In the first room were five little children, from two to five years of age. I noticed one little sick child sitting on its low seat, which warmed my deepest sympathies. It was pale and emaciated, its little hands appearing almost transparent. The development of its features showed a precocity almost startling. It was born in the Infirmary, and the ladies and gentlemen in charge informed us that they believed that its life had only been preserved thus far in consequence of the extreme care that had been taken of it. When I looked upon this patient, innocent, suffering child, born in the Infirmary, I was most forcibly reminded of Dickens' child of the Marshalsea - Little Dorrit.

We visited another room where there were some half dozen children of a larger size. Then we visited the school room. It was rather close and quite warm. A little boy was requested by one of the ladies in charge to sing. He sang an appropriate verse and was joined in the chorus by all the children. A little negro girl was then requested to sing a verse, and all the children joined in the chorus with her. One little negro boy was so sleepy that I thought evry minute that he would fall prostrate upon the floor. A little white boy was in nearly the same condition.

These children were all clean and neatly dressed. Many of them were as fine and intelligent looking children as you would see anywhere. There were fifty-six of them, and they are being sent two or three every day to the country, as good homes can be procured for them, and others are coming in daily. This is an institution organized under a general law of the State, but it is said to be the only one yet organized under this law. Those in charge appear to be thoroughly interested in the work they are engaged in, and they regard it not so much as a duty for which they are paid, as a Christian duty for which they expect a higher reward hereafter. This institution reflects great honor upon the State of Ohio for passing such a law, and upon the people of Washington County who have carried the law into practical operation. It is a great advance in the direction of a higher and nobler Christian civilization.

As we were leaving, these little waifs all came out, some three or four of them being of the lately despised African race. They clapped their little hands and cheered us. May God bless them.

As we returned to the city, we crossed the bridge and drove through Harmar and then back to the hotel. Our meeting at night was pleasant and agreeable. Too much smoking, but no drunkenness.

I had resolved to start home on Friday morning, but several citizens urged me to go out to Cow Run. My friend Stimson was particularly solicitous that I should go, and finally I consented.

We started at seven o'clock in buggies and express wagons and had nine miles to go. We went over the hills, a pretty rough country. Judge Chamberlain took me and Dumble of the Marietta Register, Chapman of the Pomeroy Telegraph, and McFarland of the Portsmouth Tribune. We arrived at Cow Run at ten o'clock. This is a small branch which empties into the Little Muskingum. The bottom is narrow, and steep hills arise on both sides. The derricks occupy a distance of half a mile up the bottom, and then up the little hollows on the right haand side as you go up the little creel. Then they are scattered up the steep hill on the right, to its very summit. Where there is a narrow branch, or level space on the steep hillside, there a derrick towers up. But they are the most numerous on the little bottom of Cow Run. They are thick as the chimneys in a closely built town. 

Did you ever see one of these derricks? Four sills, some twenty feet long, are framed together and made level. A piece of hewn timber, eight inches square and fifty feel long, is set upon each corner of this frame, and the tops are drawn in until they approach within eight feet of each other. They are then fastened by cross pieces and braces. In the center at the top is a pulley, over which a rope passes. One end is fastened to the top of the drill, and the other passes around a shaft. Upon this shaft is a drum. Around this drum passes a belt. The belt passes around another drum at the engine, and thus the rope is wound around the shaft and draws the drill up towards the pulley at the top of the derrick.

There are over one hundred derricks in view at one time. Derricks are being erected. They stand over new flowing wells. They stand over wells where the oil is being pumped up. They stand over weels which are being repaired and over abandoned wells. The wells all have names, such as "School House Well," "Eureka Well," "Grecian Bend Well," &c. A well was put down on the lot owned by the school district, and now the district has realized from it ten thousand dollars. They do not know what to do with the money. The party who bores pays the owner of the "territory" one-third of the oil as royalty, or rent.

A company over on the Little Muskingum, two miles north, forces water over one hill and to the top of another into two great tanks, and from these all the engines are supplied with fresh water. This company charges $25.00 per month to supply each engine, when it runs day and night. 

The wells now produce in the aggregate, 400 barrels crude of oil, worth eleven cents per gallon, or $4.50 per barrel. Pipes lead from the different wells to one point, and there a powerful little engine forces the oil through a pipe, over a high hill, five miles, to the Ohio River. A dial indicates the amount of pressure. When I saw it, 320 pounds to the inch was being put on. As the Ohio River must be lower than Cow run, I suggested to the engineer that a siphon might be used instead of an engine. But he said the friction of the oil in the pipe would render this impracticable.

I learned a great many interesting things about this oil business, but I fear I shall be tedious. I will, however, note a few more things about it.

The drill weighs from twelve to fourteen hundred pounds. Some have a number of wooden rods attached to them and then the rope. some have no rods, but the rope is fastened directly to the drill. These rods are thirty-six feet long and screwed together. The drill is worked the same as the pump. A cross beam is balanced in the center, and the engine at one end, and of course the other end of the beam has a corresponding motion. To this end is fastened the rope. So the drill is raised a foot or two and permitted to drop. A man keeps turning the drill, which is thus made to fall each time in a differen tposition, and thus the hole is made round. By this turning, a screw is all the time being operated at the upper end of the rope, and the drill is each time lowered, or screwed downwards, as the hole deepens.

The wells are from 200 to 1,600 feet deep. One is being drilled which is now over 1,600 feet deep, and it has cost $30,000.

Some wells will "flow," or throw up a barrel or two of oil every half hour. This may continue a month or more, when the periods will change, and the flow will be once an hour. After a month or so the period may again be changed. Sometimes the oil will be thrown fifty feel above the top of the derrick. Gas is almost constantly coming up. It can be seen like the glimmering of heat on a very warm day. This gas has a most pungent and disagreeable smell.

The oil does not look like I supposed it did. It is very thin and fluid and of a sky-blue-slate color. It is quite cold. It is very inflammable, and frequently the gas becomes ignited and flashes to the oil. Then there is an explosion, and the derricks, tank &c., are gone beyond redemption, as they are always thoroughly saturated with oil. It is too dangerous a place to have drunken men, and no one is permitted to sell whisky there.

The surface of the water in Cow Run is covered with floating oil and exhibits every color of the rainbow, as seen when light is resolved into its original elements by the prism. Sunlight has been decomposed by some unknown process in nature and stowed away deep in the bowels of the earth, perhaps millions of years before Moses was hidden in the bullrushes, or Abraham went forth to battle. And now it is brought forth, and from this long hidden light is made the rich and glorious aniline dyes, which far surpass the famous Eastner purple, and now the beautiful woman of 1870 is arrayed in silks, the colors of which far surpass the glories of the court of Solomon.

But I must let Cow Run slide.

And now a parting word to Marietta. It is a fine old place. I did not see a drunken man, nor a doggery, nor did I hear an oath sworn in the place. Of course there is vice and immorality there, and even crime. But these are rare. The people are refined. There is more aristocracy of learning than of wealth. The place is behind the age in some things. The streets are not graded, and when it is wet weather they are mud holes. 

I never saw so many trees in a city. Looking down from the top of the College buildings, one can scarcely see the houses. It looks like a dense forest. And what is more beautiful is, that the great bulk and body of these trees are maples. There are some elms and other trees, including evergreens. But then it is one great maple forest. I consider the American maple the most beautiful tree in the world. And the elm next. 

My old friend, Col. David Alban, drew a little on his imagination. He said that the whippoorwill could be heard in the heart of the city - that this lonely bird had never forsaken Marietta since it was originally settled in 1788. But he finally took that back and said that it might be on the hills back of the city where it could be heard.

I have left myself no room to speak of the many worthy men whom I met in Marietta. I will only mention one, the chairman of our evening meeting, S. S. Knowles, Esq. He is every way worthy, and I was gratified to hear that there is a strong inclination to send him to Congress. He is about the only man in Marietta who showed a decent respect to Mrs. Longley and Miss Bates when they were in the place.

 

Marietta to Devola: "Our Coney Island"

Marietta Daily Times, July 24, 1917

Conditions noted along the line, and things we saw on this trip, cause us to speak of it through the press, for we believe some persons living here do not fully appreciate the many good and beautiful things of really high class that they see and pass each day, because they are either absorbed with other affairs, or don't have their "thinking caps" on.

After leaving the city and on arriving at Rathbone, we noticed with pleasure and relief, that the "avalanche" in front of Mr. Marsh's home that has advanced several times without orders or even giving the countersign, has been arrested , and that he seems now to have the conditions well in hand, all of which must have required courage on his part in trying to hold this soil where it belongs.

Then coming to the Children's Home, we find the exterior conditions in fine form, and while we did not visit the Home, we learned that Mrs. Jordan, who is in charge, is complete master of the institution, outside and in, and that much credit is due her for her faithful and untiring efforts.  She has instituted gardening, or truck growing, among the little boys, who have small lots or tracts laid off near the car line tracts from car windows, all of which show that the boys take pride in doing the work and doing it well, and through Mrs. Jordan's efforts, there is being instilled into the nature and being of these boys that grand feature in any man's life, industry and pride in what he does.

Who knows but that some of these boys may some day be leading men in many ways of agriculture.  Mrs. Jordan buys their products, pays them the money, and they are to spend it for clothing or the useful things they need, which proves another good point brought out by Mrs. Jordan.

Splendid Wheat Field

On up the beautiful paved way, through gardens galore, we next came in view of a wheat field on the land of W. W. Mills at Millgate that arrested our attention.  It has been our good fortune to have visited some of the leading wheat growing states from Portland, Maine, to Portland, Oregon, and in all our life, we have never seen a field of wheat that was better, and few that equalled this.  Judging from the thickness of same, its even height, and being so well filled, these points make it a sure prize winner this season in Ohio.  It was a grand sight for the eyes of those who enjoy and appreciate anything along this line of agriculture.

We saw it after it had been cut and shocked and should like to know how much it would yield per acre.  We understand that at a meeting of farmers and fruit growers which was held in Marietta recently, Mr. Mills and Mr. Chamberlain and other prominent landowners were present, and each addressed the meeting, both claiming they were not real farmers, but simply "agriculturists."  Well, we think Mr. Mills has the wheat growing theory on the right plan and would suggest that some of our farmers get his formula and apply his method in producing the crop for 1918.  He surely has the key on wheat growing and the soil to back it.

We did not visit his delightful summer home on the crest, above Millgate Station, the view of which is hidden from the driveway below by the canopy of trees on the hilltop, but we are told that all its beauty and grandeur are at once uncovered when you arrive at the summit, and that the view up and down the beautiful Muskingum and across the valley is extremely picturesque.  Mr. Mills, with all his wealth, generosity, hospitality and patriotism, is a grand man to have in this or any community.

One Big Garden

 

Leaving Millgate, we passed the lovely farm homes of Mr. Dawes, Mr. Cram, Mr. Dyar, and the Devol Brothers, and you are simply in one big growing garden, interspersed with fields of corn, alfalfa, barley and oats, all of which indicate great prosperity.

 

The next we find is the Country Club grounds on the farm of the Devol brothers, and they are beautiful from either the driveway or the Inter-urban car line. From the latter you see the north side and golf links, while from the driveway you see the south side and the "automobile trail" into the grounds.

 

We left the paved way at Mr. Dyar's and took the dirt road up the river front, and when we passed the Country Club we were then upon the large farm of Harry Chamberlain. He has recently erected a very fine barn, in fact about the last word in barn construction.

 

This magnificent structure, 60x100 feet, with mandrel roof and all the associate buildings surrounding it, and the beautiful grove in the background, makes a commanding appearance from the river front. Mr. Chamberlain has moved from their old resting place these associate buildings, from near the home. The new structure is very spacious and convenient, having automatic water service and complete sewerage system, with creosote blocks installed, and perfect ventilation, in which the air can be changed every twenty minutes.

 

After seeing inside, as well as the outside, we were reminded of the two battleships we once went on board, while they were anchored in the harbor at Seattle, long years ago. I refer to the Charleston and the Baltimore.

 

In the new barn, Mr. Chamberlain keeps his herd of pure bred Guernseys and high grade Guernsey Jerseys, while in the other barn, the horses are quartered.  The associated buildings comprise the chicken and hog houses, blacksmith shop and machinery or tool house. The moving of all these was a large undertaking, but their going has added much to the beauty of the surrounding home at Walnut Hills.

 

Mr. Chamberlain takes great pleasure in all of his home affairs, but especially is he proud of his herd of pure bred Guernseys and feels that in "Souvenir of Mt. Vernon," which is at the head of his herd, no better sire can be found in the country.

 

Marietta's Coney Island

 

We finally landed at Devola and took a stroll down to the beach that we have heard so much of, and where the bathing is so fine and attracts thousands of persons during the bathing season. Some are going in now, but a little later the season proper will open and the sport will be kept up until cool weather. The banks of this beautiful river are dotted with campers all summer, some of the camps being elegantly fitted up and equipped for home comfort and pleasure, by some of Marietta's leading citizens and persons from a distance, who spend their vacation here in leisure hours of bathing, boating and fishing.

 

The famous resort is to Marietta, what Coney Island is to New York City, and we readily see why it is so popular with the people.

 

Returning to the station we met a friend who wanted to show us some real estate values in the way of lots at Devola, so we walked about with him and looked them over, and I must say if Devola is to ever take on any boom, the owners of these lots, or some of them, must give the lots a shave and a haircut, for they do look wild and wooly. The mullen and weeds were "head high to a giraffe" on some lots, and such conditions lead the passerby and onlooker to think the owners had forgotten they had these lots, or decided the suburb was a "dead one," and no use to clean up. No greater mistake can be made, however, than to think that the influence of such conditions are not detrimental to Devola.

 

There are some pretty homes here, the "Flag Bungalow" of Mr. Peters, and the bungalow of Mr. Withum are new and modern in all ways, and equally so is the stucco home of Mr. Ryan. Recently a town hall has been erected on one of the lots at Devola, and it adds much to general appearances of the village. The business meetings of the township and all the elections will be held here in the future, rather than at Unionville, as has been the custom in the past. The building is frame, with brick veneer and stone trimmings, very substantial and cozy.

 

Near the town hall and station is a store and dwelling combined, owned by Mr. and Mrs. J. B. Johnson, and this serves a great convenience, not only for the residents, but also for the campers on the waterfront. We understand there are some persons living near Devola, who can do some of the "specials" in life, or that they are "combination people."

 

A combination horse is rated as one of the most useful of all horses, because he can do different gaits, and can be used under the saddle and is equally useful when hitched in harness, and I believe the same may be applied to a man who can do many things with success.

 

We were told Carl Becker, who is the leader of the orchestra at the Auditorium Theatre in Marietta, and a man who is recognized by the musical profession everywhere, and who has clerical ability unusual, is also a practical farmer and truck grower near Devola, and that Dr. Frank Sparling is a prominent physician in the community, and at the same time a very successful farmer and truck grower, employing a large force of help during the garden season, and that R. B. Ward is a pioneer farmer and truck grower on scientific principles, having educated both his sons at the College of Agriculture at Columbus.

 

Mr. Ward is sort of a "Community Father," being a man of affairs in the township and community in general and always on deck.  Ed Devol spends his summers in farming and truck growing near Devola and in the fall goes to Florida, where he spends the winter engaged in the culture of oranges and grapefruit, near Winter Haven.  We were told that other prominent truck farms were on up above Devola, and that another summer resort, called Fern Cliff, was only one mile away.

 

At this resort they have a dance hall and amusements of all kinds all summer, and that a Mr. Stowe lives near there, who is very popular with the Brotherhood of Elks, who accept and enjoy his hospitality many times during the summer, and that the United Woolen Mills people have a fondness for him and his fine home and take their vacation trip to his place each summer, where they dance and feast, and that all the girls of the company think there is no one just like "Pop Stowe."  We surely were pleasantly met by all on our little trip, and enjoyed it very much and think we would like to own a home at Devola, and some day we may.

 

Joker Starts Something

 

While were were waiting for the car, our attention was called to a sign on some stakes where pumpkins were planted. It read like this, "Pumpkin Park, California pumpkins, watch 'em grow, they say they grow to be ten feet long. Say boys! I mean the vines." We could not understand its meaning, and as we read it some gave us the laugh. So we called up Mr. Wilson, who is in charge of the Inter-Urban affairs and grounds at the station, and asked him if the company was starting an "experiment farm" on the station lot at Devola. He said they were not, and that he had advised the party who had the "nerve" to plant said pumpkins on their land that a trip to Columbus, Ohio, was in store for him for trespassing on the company's grounds. We then inquired who the "Jasper" was who did this, but no one about Devola could or would tell.

 

We wanted to return to Marietta over the gravel road and paved way, via the Putnam School and church building combined, by the way, established the same year the writer first saw the peep o'day in 1859, near which Sam H. Plumer lives, who is one of the county's best, reliable and industrious men; also the home of John Strecker and his son-in-law, Elmer Drain, who are very successful in everything they attempt, and the old "Devol homestead," where Clark Devol is "monarch of all he surveys," and the county experiment farm, in charge of that good and capable man, Owen Riley, also the "Iris," a suburban home owned by our old friend, Will Neubeck, who we regret to learn is in poor health.

 

He has made this land, bought of Charles Dyar, into a beautiful country home and farm, which is being farmed by a Mr. Davis, who is a hustling farmer, with good ideas, a fine wife and bright family, among which is a son who was strong in the corn contest of Ohio, and had a free trip to Washington, D.C., and other eastern points last year, where he enjoyed all and got much good information.

 

Right here, we are also near the land of the Devol Brothers, who not only farm and grow garden stuff with great success, but are also among the leading dealers in Ohio in "white face" or Hereford cattle, pure bred and high grade.

 

We should have called upon Mr. Devol of dairy fame, but time did not allow.  "Jimmy" is a real bright up to the minute fellow, not only in dairy work, in general farming, and the affairs of our country, and how he and his cousin, Ed Devol, of Devola, have ever escaped matrimony is more than some can understand. They are congenial fellows, who seem to have a fondness for the ladies, but a lack of courage to propose.

 

If somebody don't shoot or imprison me for this write up, I may appear again, as soon as I harvest the pumpkins at Devola.

 

We were told at the last moment that Pinchville or Pinchtown, on the way has been changed to Unionville. We asked why its original name, "Pinchville," and were informed that in days gone, booze was administered from this, a road house there, and that the frequenters were mostly from Marietta, and all got pinched; thus the name "Pinchville."

  

The Children's Home

The Marietta Register, August 19, 1864

It being necessary to appeal to the public for aid in behalf of the "Children's Home," under Miss Fay, the following statement of facts is submitted, showing its history and condition.

The institution was founded in the spring of 1858 and has been in successful operation for six years.  The plan was conceived and carried into execution by the wisdom, energy, faith and means of a woman, to stand to her lasting honor.  She purchased a farm of 32 acres, and erected the buildings by her own resources, at a cost of $2272, receiving some small assistance from personal friends who sympathized in her unusual undertaking.  Her faith had conceived the enterprise of rescuing the children of poverty, in this county, from their degradation, and she consecrated her life and property sublimely to the task.  The first offering was all her pecuniary resources, made by her own labor in teaching, and the portion received of her father's estate, amounting, as already stated, to $2272.

The more difficult task was then the carrying out of her plans in the erection of buildings, the management of the farm, and the conduct of the institution, commencing at once in an old log house with the care of four children, increased during the year to 13; all of which she superintended and carried forward by her own indomitable energy and courage.

The improvements since made, and the stocking of the farm, have cost the additional sum of $1311, making a total of $3583; while the expenses for the six years of conducting the institution have been $5451, being an average of $908 per year.  The appropriations from the county for the same period have been $4528, being an average of about $755 per year.

Miss Fay makes no account of the interest on her capital invested, nor of her own services.  Both these are gratuitously thrown in, beside the income of her farm.  This is the noble offering she makes for the support and education of these children of want.

The total number of these children in six years is 66, of which 18 have found good homes, 12 have died, and 10 been removed by their parents.  The number at the close of last year was 27, of whom three only were over nine years of age, and eight were under four years of age.  This fact will serve to show what the care and labor must be, connected with such an enterprise.

Miss Fay employs a teacher six months of the year, and during three other months the children attend the common school of the district, so that they have schooling during nine months of the year.

She also provides half the necessary medical attendance, and the labors of a nurse; and these cannot be small, when the children with but few exceptions are subject to disease or some physical defect, when first brought under her care.  Their health, however, has in nearly every instance improved, while their moral condition more deplorable at the beginning than their physical, has been marked by the most wonderful improvement.  From almost utter ignorance of God and the Bible, and all laws of truth and honesty, they have been made to know the blessedness of religious instruction, and rendered happy under the same, becoming uniformly attached to the "Home."

The county has heretofore allowed $1 per week to a child.  During the present year they appropriate $1.25.  But owing to the increased expenses of living, this falls short of meeting the necessary expenditures from $4 to $5 per week, for which no means are provided - or, say, from $200 to $250 per year.

An effort was begun, last year, to secure legislative action, which would enable the County Commissioners to make ample provision for such an institution, and it is hoped that the next winter will see this effort consummated.  In the meantime it is necessary for the people of the county to come to the aid of this noble philanthropic enterprise.  It is an honor to old Washington County that one should have been found among her daughters, who had the genius to conceive, and the benevolence and courage to execute such a scheme as now stands a monument to her praise.  She has believed that the work was of God.  In all her straits she has gone to him for help, and her testimony is, that she has never failed to receive the assistance which she needed.  She believes that He will now provide for her, and not suffer her charge to fail; but will put it into the hearts of those who care for the suffering and poor to supply that which is lacking.

After consultation had with some friends of this cause, it is proposed and requested that this statement of facts be read on the next Sabbath in the churches of the county, with a view to obtaining donations.  And it is hoped that the towns through the county will interest themselves in this object.  Donations may be made in money, produce, clothing, or whatever else may be found useful in such an institution.

Donations may be sent to William F. Curtis or Buell & Bro., Marietta.

Thomas Wickes

  

Miss Fay's Report

The Marietta Register, January 12, 1865

Children's Home, Jan. 7, 1865.

Messrs. Commissioners - Sirs:  As another year has closed, I forward to you, at your request, as correct an account as I can of our proceedings here.  I feel the need of some more systematic way of doing the work before me.  We need some wise and patriotic system of benevolence, planned and established, not only for the poor and unfortunate, but also more specially for our soldiers' children, who are left destitute and suddenly deprived of a father's care and protection.  How many such fathers in our noble State have fallen and will fall, in this great struggle for freedom and the saving of the life of our nation!  And, in view of the great and urgent call for the aid and sympathies of every kind and patriotic soul, I feel a desire to consecrate myself and property, with the exception of such amount as I may need through life, to this cause.

A home for such destitute children is now called for - one that will, in every way, be a home, guided by a christian principle, adorned with all that will ennoble the character and cultivate the mind, not only in our own county, but in every county in this State.  What more noble act of gratitude can we bestow upon the fallen, patriotic fathers of Ohio, than to care for their beloved and destitute children, and so arrange such an institution, that the children may be trained for usefulness in the world, and an honor to the grave of their fathers?  I hope, ere the year we have now just entered is closed, we shall be such an institution, with officers efficient and competent to carry out all their plans, to the honor of our noble State and county.  A bill of this kind is now before the Legislature, through the kindness of Hon. Wm. F. Curtis.

We closed the past year with 29 children.  All but three of these are ten and under.  Three are not a county charge.  I have had 13 additions this year.  Five have found good homes.  Five were taken away by their parents.  Two have died (both infants).  Our health as a family has been remarkably good.  To be sure, we were afflicted by disease brought in the family, during the summer months, by children sent here.  But, aside from this, we have had little or not sickness.  For the last three months, we have not been obliged to call a physician once.  In all this, we see the kind hand of our God.  To Him be all the praise.

The school has been kept up six months at the Home the past year.  During the summer, the children that were large enough were sent to the district school three months.  Their improvement has been quite rapid.  As a general thing, I think it will be found that they stand on a line with other children of their age, in regard to education.  Arithmetic, Geography, Grammar, also History, are studied.  One is in Ray's Arithmetic, 3d part; another studies Thomson's higher Arithmetic and Algebra.  Miss Mary L. Shepard is still our teacher.  Miss Emma Tilton has charge of the children out of school.  Mr. A. T. Ewing, farmer and assistant.  As to our financial affairs, we have been blessed beyond my most sanguine expectations.  When I began the year, every thing looked dark.  But faith in God alone kept me up.  He has been, and still is, our guide; and, thanks be to His great name, we closed the year with far brighter prospects that ever before.

My expenses were - $2,655.82.

I received from the county - $1,809.24.

Donations in money - 276.36

Donations in books - 68.60

Donations in clothing - 87.50

Income from farm, &c. - 200.00

Dr. Wm. L. McCowin kindly gave one-half his salary - 40.00

Traveling expenses of myself - 43.88 

2,525.58

An acknowledgement is here due to you and the kind ladies of Marietta, for furnishing me the means of visiting some of the public institutions of our State, thus giving me time to rest, and also opportunity to gain useful knowledge in laying plans for the future.

Very few improvements have been made on the Home the past year; yet I find my expenses have exceeded last year, and at the present rate of things, it must increase during this present year; for some additions will have to be made to our buildings to make us comfortable and healthy.  Many thanks are due to the kind friends of our county for their noble efforts to assist in this grand work.  Much more is needed to be done.  While almost every month new additions are made of soldiers' children to our number, "let us not be weary in well doing," but "work while it is called to-day," praying always that the kind Father may direct us in all our labor, so that we may at least honor and glorify Him.

Yours truly,

C. A. Fay

Automobile Runs Into Crowd of Children

The Marietta Daily Times, December 18, 1922

Ten Inmates of County Home Hurt in Accident.  Number Are Run Over and Some Thrown Into Ravine.

Driver of Machine With Lights Dim and Glare From Another Car in His Eyes Fails to See Party of Boys and Girls in Front of Him Until He Runs Into Them.  Bodies Hurled in All Directions But Injuries of None of the Victims Are Expected To Have Serious Results.

List of Victims:
Martha Seyler
Mildred Covey
Clifford Keirns
Everett McFarland
Edna Fotch
Mrs. Letha Brookover
Charles Chidester
Eugene Fotch
Byron Schoonover
Paul Brookover
Leo Davis

When an automobile ran through a crowd of Children's Home boys and girls, who were walking along Muskingum Drive on Sunday evening, ten of the little folks were more or less severely injured, and one woman, who was in charge of them, was painfully bruised.  Four of the victims - two girls and two boys - are being cared for at Marietta hospital and it may be several days before they are able to leave the institution.  The accident occurred just at the entrance to the Home grounds, and the victims were en route from church services in this city.  Arda Fouss, of Warner, was driving the automobile that caused the trouble.

As is the custom, the children had attended one of the city churches, and having missed the interurban car that leaves the court house at 8:05 o'clock, had proposed to Mrs. Brookover that they walk home.  The woman agreed to the proposal and the hike was undertaken.  The children were enjoying the outing to the fullest extent and were just ready to turn from the paved road at the entrance to the institution that is home to them, when, without any warning, a Ford car, coming from their rear, plunged into the crowd.

The boys and girls were hurled in every direction.  The car passed over two or three of the victims, while some were hurled over an embankment into a ravine, and the remainder were knocked into the mud at the side of the road.

Defective light on the Ford car, together with the fact that another automobile was approaching from the north in such a position that the glare from its lights blinded the driver of the Ford, caused the accident.  The driver of the Ford was wholly unaware of the presence of the young people on the road until his machine had struck them.  He made a quick stop, and helped to rescue the victims, who were carried into the Home.

Superintendent and Mrs. Adamson were seated before the fire in their library when they heard the screams of the injured children.  They ran to the scene, as did other people in the neighborhood, and helped to gather up the victims.  All were carried into the home where first aid treatment was applied.  Then ambulances were summoned from the city.  both the Doudna & McClure and the Wieser & Cawlely ambulances responded, and the four children most seriously injured - Martha Seyler, Mildred Covery, Clifford Keirns and Everett McFarland, were sent to Marietta hospital.

Little Girl Most Hurt

Doctors Williams, Edwards and McKim responded to emergency calls and assisted in caring for the less seriously injured who remained at the home.  Of the four children who were sent to the hospital, the little Covey girl, aged 13 years, was most seriously injured.  She sustained a broken rib and severe bruises about the body.  She also was cut about the hands and face.  Martha Seyler, 16, was painfully bruised about the body and badly cut about the face and head.

Clifford Keirns was severely cut about the head and face, but despite his injuries proved one of the heroes of the occasion and helped to rescue and care for several other children before he finally collapsed at the door of the home.  For a time, it was believed that he was dead.  He rallied, however, and aside from the effects of the shock does not appear to be seriously injured.

Boy Struck On Temple

Everett McFarland was hit on the temple and so badly dazed that he did not recover for some time.  He also was painfully bruised about the body and cut about the head, and his ravings before he regained full consciousness carried terror into the hearts of the other children.

Many of the victims, who were not hurt to any great extent, were rolled and dragged in the mud at the side of the road, and in several instances clothing was almost completely torn from their bodies.  Later, when these little folks had been bathed and provided with fresh clothing they were found to be little the worse for their experience.  Many of them were stiff and sore on Monday morning, as a result of bumps and bruises, but most of them were able to be in the school room at the usual hour.

Didn't See the Danger

Arda Fouss, who drove the car that caused the trouble, is a resident of the Warner community, and had been visiting in Marietta during the day.  He left the city just after 8:30 Sunday evening, to drive to his house, and was proceeding up Muskingum Drive at only a fair rate of speed.

As he drove into the curve at the entrance to the Children's Home grounds, he saw a car approaching from the north, and slowed down to pass it.  His lights were fed by the magneto on his car and as he slackened speed they died down until he faced almost solid darkness, with the glare from the approaching headlights blinding him.  He saw nothing whatever of anyone in front of his car until he was right in the midst of a crowd of screaming children.

Try To Warn Children

The car that was bound toward Marietta was a Chevrolet and its occupants were Royal Spindler, Floyd Pape, Lawrence Price and Floyd Ackerman.  Their headlights enabled them to see the crowd of children on the road and they knew that the other car was going to hit them.  They sounded their horn and called to the children to get out of the way, but there was not sufficient time for the latter to heed the warning.  These young men stopped their car and helped to gather up the injured children and carry them to the home.

An investigation of the affair was being conducted on Monday, Superintendent Adamson having charge.  The evidence pointed to an accident as nearly blameless as could be imagined, and it was not expected that anything would come of it.  Apparently all of the victims were on the road to recovery.

Washington County Infirmary

The Marietta Times, June 3, 1869

Last Monday afternoon, at the invitation of F. A. Wheeler, Esq., one of the Directors, we paid a visit to the Washington County Infirmary.  A ride of three miles brought us to the farm.  This consists of about 170 acres, the most of which was purchased thirty years ago, and it was then a worn-out farm.  The soil was light originally, and "washes" in a heavy rain.  This would suggest careful tillage to anybody who knows aught about farming; but it seems not to have had that effect on some who had managed the place, for, two years ago, the ground had got to be almost sterile.  Large quantities of manure are now hauled out from Marietta, and all that can be supplied by J. H. Dye's livery stable has been engaged.  The object is, to make the Infirmary a self-sustaining institution.  There are about five acres of old orchard trees; and sixteen acres of fruit trees more recently planted.  The probabilities are that there will be an abundant - if not an excessive - supply, this season.

Last year, eight cows were kept.  The product of the dairy was 1,000 lbs. of butter, of which 400 pounds were sold.  The inmates regularly have the morning's milk for their supper.

Of hay, the farm, for a few years prior to 1868, did not yield enough; but, last year, there was a surplus, which was sold for $146, and there is still about a ton left.

Mr. Gill, this year, will have pork enough he thinks; heretofore, there not being half the needed quantity derived from the farm.

Of potatoes there was a deficiency in 1868.  This year, the Superintendent has planted 6 acres, all looking well and thirty acres of corn.

The garden comprises an acre and a half.  Mr. Gill has newly fenced and enlarged it.  Last year, he raised eight hundred head of cabbages; 50 bushels of sweet potatoes; a large bed of onions; plenty of peas, and of several kinds of beans; and of beets, more than a sufficiency.  This year, he has set out fifty grape vines; none had been planted before, old as the place happens to be.  Not one of the paupers is a good gardener; an old German who was such, and who loved the employment, died about two years ago.

In the management of matters about the farm houses, Mr. Gill has no assistants other than his wife, his daughter, and Miss Julia Wheeler, a relative.  There are sixty-one inmates, and of these, thirty-five are "foolish," insane, or demented.  Forty eight take their meals in the common dining room; to the others, food is carried.  The victuals are wholesome, and enough is furnished.  We saw the paupers at their supper; and, judging from appearances, we think that extreme poverty has the merit of giving its subjects a better appetite than all the tonics known to the medical profession, and all the "bitters" ever advertised.

Two old women had attained an advanced age.  Mrs. Grant is 94.  She claims that her father was a relative of General Lewis Cass.  Mrs. Cole, another old woman, is 95.  In the nursery were three babies, two white, one colored, born there.  Illegitimate, of course.  One was but three weeks old.  Its mother was walking about, completely recovered, and quite at her ease.

In what is called the jail, several raving lunatics are confined.  One of them, a burly German, with the neck of a bull, was very noisy.  A poor woman, whose reason had been overthrown by abuse from her husband, was afflicted, in addition to other maladies, with the voracity ascribed to the shark.  If she could but get enough, she would eat till death choked her.  She lay on the floor, with her face pressed against the grated door of the cell, and stretched her hand through the bars as if piteously pleading.  Her whole demeanor was that of a caged animal, such as one may see in a menagerie.

To conclude with the Infirmary: Mr. Gill, as Superintendent, devotes his time to the strict performance of what he has to do, and he is plainly an improvement upon some of his predecessors.  Perhaps the farm - such as it is - may never be completely self-sustaining; but he is making it as nearly so as he can.  In this, he has the co-operation of the board of Directors, and without it, little, perhaps, could be effected.

It was after six o'clock when we left the Infirmary, and, at the request of Esquire Wheeler, we went up the Muskingum river road to the Children's Home.  This is now in charge of Dr. S. D. Hart, and his excellent wife.  They are assisted by three nurses, a cook, a dining room girl under the direction of the cook, and one seamstress, who is employed through the year, except when work presses, and then two are required.  The Doctor himself goes out to work in the fields, and he has one man hired to help him.  Eight boys, big enough to be of some use, are set at whatever they can do.

There are fifty four children in the Home at present; the oldest is 14 years of age; the youngest, an infant of seven weeks.  There are two other babes, each about a year old.  The ages of most of the children range between 2 and 6 years.  Nearly half are illegitimate.  Their mothers are not really able to take care of them, or else they are too shiftless and indolent.  We were shown through all the rooms, and found everything comfortable, and in order.  It was growing dark; the children were collected in what is called a school room; a hymn was sung; prayer was offered by Dr. Hart, and then they began to prepare for bed. 

Our little party, at the same time, set about returning to Marietta.  We had spent a thoughtful afternoon; first with old people whose lives were destined to end under the clouds, and then with young folk whose lives had begun under a cloud.  And yet, neither the aged nor the youthful unfortunates were exactly the most miserable folks we had seen on the earth.